When did it start? I should say read your Torah, ‘In the Beginning’ and all that. But when did it start for me, when did I get involved with the Preacher? Well, I never got ‘involved’ with him, I was never ‘touched’ or ‘enlightened’, if that’s what you mean. He was always just a guy to me, some one to be followed around the streets, and kept an eye on. Hell, I never even heard of him until the Chief collared me in the corridor one day.
I was hanging around waiting for something to happen. We had a couple of rooms squashed up against the Auxiliary barracks- supposedly we were ‘civilian liaison’ to the Germans- and I had wandered in earlier that day to find out what the excitement was on the streets. I hadn’t been able to get a straight answer out of anyone, I don’t think anyone knew what was going on for sure, just something. I never could prove anything, but I always reckon the Preacher, or possibly one of his gang, had sent people ahead, just to stir up the buzz. I never bought that spontaneous ‘palm leaves’ nonsense. The whole city was acting like it was the afternoon before a holy day, but no one knew why.
It turned out the Chief knew. I had been playing cat and mouse with him for a couple of hours, though he didn’t know that. I was telling myself that I wasn’t curious as to the source of the buzz, it was just better than being at home. I was living in one room in a block on the downwind side of town. In addition to the lack of odour, the Romans kept their barracks a lot cleaner than we seemed to keep our streets, which had the bonus of making their well water taste sweeter; I swear kids dropped rats in the one in my street. So I had my excuse, I had enough crap spread across my desk to justify the pay, and if I happened to hear what was going on, well, that was a bonus.
The Cat and Mouse game ended suddenly and unexpectedly when I was sat in the Romans communal latrine, and in walked the Chief. So successful had I been at avoiding him, and more importantly any ‘little errands’ he might want doing, that he was surprised at seeing me, and, as I was halfway through biding farewell to last nights lamb roast, I was a captive audience
“Afternoon Joe” he said jovially, sitting next to me. The Chief was a big man, in many senses of the word. Rumour said that he had some sort of access to Pilate, and he could call in favours up and down the Jordan. Eventually everyone passed through Jerusalem, at least anyone the police would be interested in, and so if you were a policeman from somewhere else you relied on the Chief to get you what you wanted. He was two or three inches taller than most men, and while he was running to fat since his hair had started to grey, he was obviously muscular under the extra pounds.
“Chief.” I replied, non-committally.
“You heard about this…” here he paused to break wind noisily “this preacher from Galilee? I shrugged to indicate ‘Probably not’. He took this as an invitation to continue, rather than an attempt to end the conversation before it got started. “He’s got some sort of gang or band- twelve of them, following him like so many puppies. The Pharisees are getting a bit jumpy- apparently he’s been challenging their authority up and down Israel, claiming he speaks for God. Get the lads together Joe, briefing straight after I’ve had my lunch”.
I finished up quickly and after washing, jogged out into the street, and grabbed one of the street urchins. “Samuel” I said, showing him a coin, “go and get the lads together. This is yours if they all turn up in double quick time”.
He grinned a smile of golden brilliance through his grimy face, and rushed off, bare-foot and ragged. The kids hung around outside our door for this reason- they knew they could always earn money as messengers and delivery boys.

The ‘at’ was left in from a previous edit, as I copy and paste from the Word original, and it was 3 in the morning. Now removed. I don’t know whether to use “O’clock”. Did the biblical Jews have such a concept (even if only an equivalent)? Does it matter if they didn’t? Bugger- just thought- probably had sundials

NEXT PART
An hour later the team was assembling in the largest of the rooms we used. As the chief walked in I gestured for Levi to lose the chicken leg he was gnawing, and he threw it through the far window, with a grin on his face. I watched, waiting to see what crowd-pleaser he was about to pull.
“Right, lads” the chief started. Even before Levi’s interrupting belch had finished my anticipation was scolding him. “Oy, if you insist on acting like a kid I’ll send you back to the Rabbi for Bar Mitzvah instruction. Now shut up the lot of you”.
The Chief, to give him his due, was more patient. For weeks we’d been stuck on routine stuff, street robbery and the such, and the guys were desperate for a proper criminal. Even the revolutionary groups were a boring subject at the moment- they were so splintered that they spent more time shouting at one another than plotting bloody revolution. The Chief cleared his throat and started again.
“Right lads, we’ve got a new trouble maker coming into town. He’s been wandering round Galilee for these past few months, and is on his way here.”
“What’s he been doing?” interrupted Ben.
The Chief scanned the parchment he was holding ” Undermining the rule of Law, Disrespect to the Temple Authorities, Forbidden Teachings, Questioning Scripture …”
“What’s his name?” asked Josh.
“Goes by the name of…” the Chief checked the notes “Jesus.”
“What? Old Bar-Abbas Broken Nose? Bar-Abbas question scripture?” Josh was astounded.
“The only question he ever asks is ‘You looking at me, pal'”. Levi said, to a wave of laughter. Bar-Abbas was a well known ‘Face’, and we’d all pulled him out of drunken brawls and given him a few kicks to sober him up. We were pretty certain that he was behind half the banditry on the Damascus road, but had never been able to prove it. Unfortunately he knew all our faces by now. The last man we’d tried to infiltrate into his gang had been found with a broken neck, but no way to tie Bar-Abbas to it. So we kept to an unspoken agreement- he did his major crimes well away from the city walls, and we would only give a kicking if he really annoyed us inside the city. Religious fervour was far too subtle a scam for him. His nickname Broken Nose came from when he was still learning these rules- Levi had left it so distorted that when he faced you, you had the feeling he was actually looking over your right shoulder. Mind you, he gave as good as he got that night- it took four of us to ‘pacify’ him, drag him out the tavern, and into the cells. My left knee still twinged when cold weather was on its way. Him and Levi had, unsurprisingly never seen eye to eye, or nose to nose come to that, since that evening, although Levi claimed, with some justification, we had probably saved his life that night. The Romans tended to a bit more summary, and terminal, in their justice.
The Chief smiled at the thought of Bar-Abbas as some form of dangerous Thought-Revolutionary; like I say, we all knew him. “No- this one goes by various names- ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, ‘the Healer’ and most controversially ”Anointed One’. Apparently some of his followers claim he is the Messiah.”
“Yeah, on what basis?” scoffed Tommy.
“Um… lets see, oh yeah, you’ll like this,” The chief looked up with a smile on his face “Apparently he was born of a Virgin, and he was attended by three wise men and a host of angels”.
“What, in Nazareth?” cried Tommy, ” A band of angels maybe, but three wise men and a virgin in Nazareth? Now that would be miracle!” There was a brief scuffle as Jacob’s foot reminded Tommy that not all the team were local.
“Oy, children, calm down” I bellowed. “What do our beloved priests want us to do Chief?”
“To start with, nothing. He’s got quite a cult going, and if we pull him at the wrong moment it could start a riot, and that would screw everything up. You’ve all heard tales of what happens when the Romans regain control of a rebellious province. No, we tail him, see what he’s up to, see if he does anything stupid. If he gives us enough rope, we hang him, so to speak. If we can get at the followers then maybe we can get them bickering enough that they become just another splinter, and leave the rest of us in peace.”

“Him and Levi had, unsurprisingly never seen eye to eye, of [or] nose to nose come to that”
It’s flowing well.
[Corrected-thanks!]
“probably had sundials”
And weren’t they a bitch to strap on your wrist? :)